A Holocaust Denier Will Likely Claim the GOP Nomination in Illinois Congressional Race

He was once the leader of the American Nazi Party. He routinely and unashamedly decries Holocaust history as being nothing but a hoax, calling it the “biggest blackest lie in history.” Today he leads the ultra-nationalist America First Committee, which is open to “any white American citizen of European, non-Jewish descent.”

His name is Arthur Jones, and he’s running for an Illinois congressional seat as a Republican. Though Jones has tried for the nomination seven times — and failed each time — this go around he’s running unopposed within his party. And that makes this Holocaust denier the de facto Republican on the ballot.

Jones hopes to represent the 3rd Congressional District in Illinois, which covers a portion of Chicago and several surrounding suburbs.

Jones has already been on the radar of both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. These civil rights groups say that he’s given guest speeches at numerous neo-Nazi gatherings, among them the National Socialist Movement. The ADL reports that in 2009 Jones organized protests against the opening of a Holocaust museum in Illinois. They’ve labeled him as an “unrepentant bigot.”

Meanwhile, Jones has maintained blogs and websites for years where he documents his radical anti-semitic and xenophobic viewpoints, often bolstered by outlandish conspiracy theories. They tend to tread the all-too-familiar ground popular among neo-Nazis, arguing that Jewish people control, dominate and manipulate banks, media and education.

Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, Jones explained that “to me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket.”

His campaign website even has a section dedicated to a myriad of Jones’ favorite anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — under the header “Holocaust” — including one that claims that many grocery items have been secretly labeled as Kosher, resulting in increased prices for non-Jews as a form of “religious tax.”

While Jones says he once supported and voted for Donald Trump, he now regrets his decision. The president has “surrounded himself with hoards of Jews,” Jones laments. No doubt that includes Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner. Ivanka converted to Judaism before marrying Kushner.

The Illinois Republican Party has not had kind words for Jones, maintaining that Nazis like him do not belong in the United States. But if this is the case, why will Jones be running as a Republican this fall?

Despite their strong opposition to Jones, the Illinois Republican Party has failed to find a legal reason to give him the boot this year. During his previous bid for the nomination, the GOP was able to cast sufficient doubt on the legitimacy of the names included on petitions that backed Jones’ candidacy. Hoping to avoid this situation again, Jones collected most of the names himself — and, troublingly, he managed to find sufficient support.

It should be noted that, while, yes, the district Jones is running for is overwhelmingly Democratic, the GOP has usually run another candidate – anyone — to ensure that Jones is stifled. But not this time.

In many ways, this is just the latest example of how the modern Republican Party has failed to properly reject extremism. Lip service seems to be the best that GOP leaders can offer these days.

I am sure this man can stand as an individual, this does not mean the party has to use him as their representative. Every party I think must have fringe loonies, the winning candidate will usually be a stable centre-ground appeal person.

So is it the Jewish people who are following death cults and shooting or blowing up everyone they can kill? Or are Jewish people developing new medical techniques and winning Nobel Prizes? I keep forgetting.